The clock is ticking on a Massachusetts Land Court decision that would force Borden Light Marina Inc. to take down approximately 630 feet of 10-foot high, unsafe, concrete retaining wall it built several years ago, restore the natural slope and remove boats obscuring permitted views between nearby condominium buildings and the Taunton River.

The clock is ticking on a Massachusetts Land Court decision that would force Borden Light Marina Inc. to take down approximately 630 feet of 10-foot high, unsafe, concrete retaining wall it built several years ago, restore the natural slope and remove boats obscuring permitted views between nearby condominium buildings and the Taunton River.

Associate Justice Judith Cutler recently ruled in favor of the condo owners, allowing lawyers for the marina and condo association 30 days to submit joint or individual agreements describing how each side would resolve the issues while remaining consistent with her decision. Those agreements are due next week, after which Cutler will confirm her initial decision with a final judgment.

Attorney Daniel Seigenberg, co-counsel with Matthew Watsky for the condos — The Landing at South Park — indicated he does not expect to reach consensus with Borden Light.

Judging by a letter sent to the condo association from the marina, that’s a good bet.

“It is our intent to appeal the decision,” wrote Michael Lund, head of Borden Light Marina and former City Council president, in his letter to condominium association owners, sent a week ago.

“It’s my opinion any appeal by the marina will not be successful," Seigenberg said. The decision "is well researched and supported by the evidence.”

Lund’s lawyer, Edmund Brennan, did not return several phone calls for comment.

The case was filed two years ago by the condominium association, citing court requirements more than a decade old, and a four-day trial was held on Nov. 8-10, 2010, and Jan. 19, 2011.

In February 2011, Cutler issued a preliminary finding and ordered Borden Light to move all of the stored boats along the 630 feet of wall that were within the erosion control easement. The marina complied.

In her most recent finding on April 10 — a 17-page decision that is part of court legal submissions, depositions and trial transcripts constituting nearly 1,000 pages — Cutler pointedly identified Borden Light’s further culpability.

“I determined that the marina’s 2008/2009 actions in excavating the coastal bank and constructing a 630-foot-long retaining wall within the erosion control easement area was a willful and knowing violation of the 2000 preliminary injunction,” she wrote.

That old injunction in Land Court prohibits the marina from “any construction” within a 20-foot erosion control easement, which Cutler said the marina knowingly violated.

“The marina can hardly claim that it has been prejudiced or otherwise injured in view of the fact that the 2009 construction was done in defiance of this court’s 2000 preliminary injunction,” she wrote.

Her decision said the controversial wall, built of cement blocks, “unreasonably interfered” with the erosion control easement.

Cutler also raised concerns that the wall could fail based upon findings by Landing experts.

The wall, built in 2009, “is unstable and in danger of failure. As such, it does not provide either adequate erosion control or adequate flood protection for the Landing property,” Cutler wrote in one of 32 “findings of fact.”

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From the condominium properties, the vertical drop to the road below varies from about 5 to 12 feet.

Borden Light, one of the region’s largest ocean marinas, handling about 250 boats, many large-scale, also violated The Landing’s “view easement.” The requirement with The Landing deed said no structures — including boats — could obstruct views 19 feet above mean sea level, the court decision said.

With the marina property and road 10 feet above mean sea level, it would put the top of the wall at about 19 feet, or at the legal limit of a boat stored next to the wall. The cement block wall ranges from 8 to 10 feet high.

“Following the 2009 construction, the marina began using the excavated erosion control easement area on the seaward side of the retaining wall for winter storage of boats (including sailboats)… The tops of these large sailboats extended into the area 19 feet above MSL,” says one of the court’s findings.

The different easements along this wall portion affect three of The Landing buildings — buildings 3, 4 and 5 — covering 45 units.

As part of violating the visual easement, Cutler said the unit owners are “also entitled to injunctive relief prohibiting such storage in the future.”

“Why take our view of Narragansett Bay away from us? That’s not right. That’s what I argued for three years,” said Bert Bouffard, board member and former chairman.

He bought his unit in 2001 and has led the fight against the Borden Light wall since 2009, including numerous appearances at City Council meetings.

He passed out the court decision to city councilors at their last meeting. But the relationship between the marina and the condo owners has not always been quite as contentious.

Mike Lund’s father, attorney John Lund, and partner Brian Corey developed the 140-unit seaside condo complex on an 8-acre, half-mile stretch between the Ferry Street marina entrance and Kennedy Park. Construction took place between September 1987 and August 1994, and the condo association owners retained deeds stipulating land requirements between them and the marina.

The entire wall through the Borden Light property and access road is about three times longer than this section Cutler declared illegal.

She noted The Landing had “waived its claims” over the other portions of the wall, first built in 1999 and continuing until 2006.

Cutler’s one ruling on easement violations in favor of Borden Light was minor. It said a porch overhang of one unit extends just over 2 feet into the marina property and two air conditioning pads encroach almost 1½ feet beyond the housing boundary.

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He said that at a public site visit organized two years ago by the state Department of Environmental Protection to view the wall and complaints by Landing representatives.

Paul Beattie, a former Landing board member who bought his unit in 1999, and who’s helped lead the litigation, said of his home, “My wife and I love it.”

Speaking at The Herald News with Bouffard last week, Beattie explained what he sees as vindication.

“The judge defined and validated the two easements that were granted to The Landing by John Lund and Brian Corey in 1986,” he said. “It’s important because we’ve been told for all of these years we didn’t have these rights.”

Michael Lund, in a phone interview, referenced various ongoing legal issues between the marina and The Landing, but declined extensive comment on the Land Court decision and offered a vastly different viewpoint on his business.

“We’re very proud of what we’ve built down here and what we’ve accomplished,” Lund said. “What I know is we’ve done more to revive the waterfront, and I’m very proud of that.”

Glenn Jaeger, chairman on a newly elected condo association board, said the five members met with their lawyers this week to review the Land Court decision and other pending litigation that could impact this case.

Jaeger said he planned to respond to Lund’s letter, which said in part, “My hope is that the change in the board may afford us a window of opportunity to sit and work together on solving these issues without lawyers…. At some point lawyers are a necessary evil, but we know what our neighborhood needs.”

Seigenberg offered a contrasting assessment.

“The reason the marina did what they did was for profit. It was additional area for their boat storage. For three or four years they’ve been storing boats right up against the wall,” he said. “It’s frankly outrageous what these people have done.”

While Jaeger stressed that the issues with Borden Light “are multifaceted,” he also said, “It’s a very positive decision for the Landing, and it’s a long time coming.”